Tag Archives: Brixton Village

We have another Brixton Bonus winner! Kam Nathan, a first time Bonus player, took home B£1,000 on 30th October, which happened to be the day before her birthday! She joins the small crowd of Bonus winners, some of whom are featured in our Winners Gallery – have a look! And make sure youget some Bonus tickets before the next draw on 27th November – just in time for some BriXmas shopping!

Kam lives on the Angell Town estate in Brixton, and first heard of the Brixton Bonus when she came to the launch of It’s Your Local Market, a new, weekly Saturday market created by Angell Town resident Andrea Brown to bring the community spirit back to the area and for residents to sell locally sourced food and affordable clothing and crafts. It’s been funded by the London Community Foundation. Kam came by the B£ stall, chatted to us, and bought a Bonus ticket – which she promptly forgot about… until she got the email from us!

“It was my birthday on 31st so I feel blessed. I will spend some in Morleys, at the make up counter, for sure! And buy some Christmas bits for my family. But most of it will go on me! I would like go to Brixton Village to eat out – with the amount I won I could go every week to treat myself to a meal! That would be nice, I haven’t done that in a long time. And I like how a lot of food in the Village is healthy. I’d rather go there and eat something better than spend money at McDonald’s.”

photo credit: Evening Standard / Matt Writtle

“I work at a nursery. I’m also involved in a few projects at Angell Town – a children’s theatre project, My London which gets people to visit different places around town, to build social and cultural intelligence. These are part of a project Angell Town’s been running at the Evening Standard. I’m a mother of five, my oldest just turned 18 and the youngest is 2. My kids are almost more excited about the prize than I am! My younger son really wants some computer games, can I buy those with Brixton Pounds?”

“I’ve lived in Brixton most of my life, and seen many shops come and go. I think keeping money in the community is a good thing to do – I want to support local shops in Brixton. I used to come to A&C Continental Deli – they had the best carrots and pumpkins around. I haven’t used Brixton Pounds before, but knew about them, I’ve noticed signs in shops and knew that it keeps the money in the community. I will start using them more now! And I’m really glad that B£ keeps their pounds sterling at the Credit Union – I have an account there myself, it’s very good – it helps local people, gives them loans.”

“The best part about winning is that I’m going to treat myself! I haven’t had much chance to do that so this is very exciting.”

Would you like a chance to treat yourself as well? Goget some Bonus tickets before the next draw on 27th November – who knows, it could be you next time! Better yet, set up a recurring entry to never miss a chance for a Brixton Grand – and get some extra goodies as a reward from us.

Owner of Sitifis Cafe Noureddine Lalmi was photographed by Lambeth Life for an article about the Brixton Pound reusable cup scheme. Sitifis is just one of many cafes and eateries in Brixton offering a discount to customers using the cup. Get hold of yours now from participating businesses for B£6 or £6.50 and help reduce the amount of waste going to landfill. See this earlier post for more details.

The Brixton Pound also featured in Friday’s Evening Standard. Brixton Village trader Mpho McKenzie said the Brixton Pound had helped boost local trade. Read the article in full here.

Thursday 29 April saw the first late night opening of Brixton Village Market. To mark the event, alternative club night Feeling Gloomy travelled South of the river from their usual home in Islington bringing with them teddy bear racing, gorilla Twister and robot Connect 4 (which looked as bizarre as it sounds). Elsewhere in the market, cafés and restaurants stayed open into the night along with art galleries and craft workshops while just outside, Brazilian caterers cooked up a storm of scrummy Acarajé, an Afro-Brazilian street food usually found on the streets of Salvador.

Branded by the B£!

The B£ team were out in force, selling pounds on the night, manning the Community Shop and painting the B£ logo on anyone who was willing!

There was a real carnival atmosphere in the Village, helped along a little by the BOY policy. Brixtonian Rowan Sawday said, “It felt like the community was thrown open. Everyone was just relaxed and mingling and I had wicked conversations with about five new people. I’ll be there for the next one!” So far the plan is to keep Brixton Village open late every Thursday, with the possibility of extending this to Market Row (fingers firmly crossed). Make sure you get down to the next one and show some support!